Panoramic view from the top of the Everest, 24th May - Photo: Mustafa Cihan

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April 24th, 2006

Advanced Base CampWe are getting prepared for higher altitudes. Tomorrow, we will climb up to 7000 meters to spend one or two days. Although we keep saying equal work load, it is impossible to catch up with Sherpas. Nima and Lakhpa Sherpas have already climbed up to 8300 meters today! They are preparing the camping sites at 7900 and 8300 meters. They are not putting up the tents but preparing a suitable place. We are expecting them to come back when they are done. These people are really different from us, Nima Sherpa, 22 years old yet, doing all these work as if he going to a daily picnic with a continuous smile on his face. We also started making our preparations. Tomorrow we will climb up to 7000 meters and if the weather allows us, we will try to reach to 7900 meters on the following days. We will try to get some of us, if not all; spend the night at the camp at 7900 meters. Today we are going to arrange the climbing equipments and the food that we brought from Turkey. We are burning Mustafa Abi’s ears for his invention of the heat bridges as a solution of the dilation problem of our fuel tubes that we use in our stoves. Thanks to Mustafa Abi, Everest will resound with our stoves!

In the meanwhile, we changed the carburettor settings of the generator that wasn’t working for days, and it works now. It seems like we are taking the advantage of the engineering education!

If it goes as it is planned, we will be above on the following four or five days, we will do our best to send news to our web page via wireless communication with our camp manager Hakan. May it be easy for all of us!

April 23rd, 2006

Advanced Base CampWe ascended a little more on the Everest. Yesterday, on the 22nd of April, we started out from the advanced base camp and reached the northern col at 7000 meters at the end of approximately 5 hours of climbing. We left the supplies that we brought with us in the tent we put up beforehand and climbed down. The climb was both formidable and impressive for us. From the advanced base camp to an approximate altitude of 6700 meters, you pass through an endless viewed glacier which has a gentle slope however a long way. At about 6700 meters of altitude quite steep slope starts. From this point on, the route is paved with fixed rope lines. The climbers attach themselves on these fixed lines by making use of certain safety equipments named “jumar” and continue climbing. However these lines are not for climbing by holding on but just to fix you in case of an unfortunate incident of fall during your climb. There are also steal ladders placed in one or two places throughout the route to cross the crevasses. Yesterday there were 45-50 people climbing on the same route. There may be people on the same line both climbing up and down. In order to avoid any chaos that may come true because of this reason, two different lines are prepared. It seems like they have already prepared the Everest for us! As you can guess, this is not something that we are very familiar with. There is an enormous commercial atmosphere here. A big firm prepares the mountain for the climbers and then collects money from other mediator firms. Sherpas and other Tibetan carriers form the labour part of this commercial traffic. In spite of their superior abilities, these people also get their share from the merciless side of the market and they are obstinately insisted to go beyond their limits that even sometimes end with death. When we think all these it is easier to understand why they have so many religious ceremonies!

We do our best to be very careful with the safety of the Sherpas that we climb together. They, for sure, present different performance than us, but even so we are determined to share equal work load as possible.

Today, we are spending the day at the camp following the climb we did yesterday; tomorrow, if the weather continues to be like this, we will climb up to 7000 meters again and this time we are planning to spend one or two nights there.

As pointed out in some of the messages that were sent; yes, our friend Tunç Fındık is also at the Himalayas, on the other side of the Everest, namely the south face. Although being at similar geographies we are too far from each other. Maybe on our return we may meet with him at Kathmandu. Using this as an opportunity, let us wish him a good climb!